Defect Severity and Priority Guide

Severity measures technical impact. Priority measures how urgently the team should address an issue. Use both to make defect triage clearer.

Choose severity

Critical: system unavailable, data loss, security exposure, or no workaround.

Major: core capability fails and work is substantially blocked.

Minor: feature works with a reasonable workaround.

Low: cosmetic or small usability issue.

Choose priority

High: fix before release or immediately for affected users.

Medium: schedule for the next planned development cycle.

Low: improve when capacity permits.

A low-severity issue can still be high priority when it affects a launch, customer commitment, or legal requirement.

Quick triage prompt

Ask: Does this block a user from completing a core task? Does it expose data or money? Is there a workaround? Does a release or customer deadline make the issue urgent?